Covenant Mom Melissa Alexander watches the Tennessee state legislature from the gallery.

Kevin Wurm for NPR

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Kevin Wurm for NPR

Covenant Mom Melissa Alexander watches the Tennessee state legislature from the gallery.

Kevin Wurm for NPR

The end of the 113th General Assembly of Tennessee is fast approaching. Melissa Alexander, Mary Joyce and Sarah Shoop Neumann have reached a new stage in their understanding of the statehouse.

But they also face a new challenge: how to square their long-held conservative beliefs with the new politics they’ve picked up in the year since the shooting at their kids’ school.

When two of the women make a controversial decision, it threatens to upend everything they’ve worked for and splinter the bonds they’ve formed with one another.

How will the women continue on? And what do the bills they’ve been tracking – ones that pass, and those that fail – mean for Tennessee’s future?

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